There are numerous medical conditions which are hard to diagnose. Often diagnosis by a physician is based on the physician's observation of combinations of symptoms in a patient. This sometimes leads to misdiagnosis. Furthermore, the patient's response to a treatment, whether drug or other modality is often followed up by physician's observation.
Many laboratory tests are performed in the diagnostic arena on a bodily specimen or fluid to determine a biological condition in a patient. However, these tests are performed off-line in diagnostic laboratories. Often, the laboratory services are only provided during a single 8-hour shift during the day and tend to be labor intensive. Some prior art publications in the field include, inter alia, U.S. Pat. No. 8,116,984, US2006215155 and US2012187117.
Despite the inventions mentioned hereinabove, there still remains an unmet need to provide improved apparatus and methods for detecting and diagnosing biological conditions in a patient.